Methodology

Methodology

As part of our commitment to improving the experiences of disabled passengers at
airports, OCS has commissioned this substantial piece of qualitative and quantitative
research to:

Examine how disabled people feel about the Passenger Assistance Service
provided at airports,

Identify new ideas to help improve the Passenger Assistance Service.

Several research tools were used, including:

Online survey promoted using social media to raise awareness of and
engagement with the research.

In-depth customer journeys were completed with disabled people so we
could observe and test every stage of the Passenger Assistance Service.

Telephone survey was used to explore attitudes and experiences at airports.

Focus groups were used to discuss specific challenges.

Individual travel logs give detailed personal travel experiences.

Desk research examining past research into disabled passenger travel.

The report contains verbatim responses, statistical evidence, customer narratives
and case examples. The report is written from the perspective of the individual and
illustrates real experiences. It looks at what people feel is their current experience
and what they would like it to be. From this, conclusions and recommendations have
been drawn for the aviation industry to consider.

In total, the views of 534 disabled people were gathered between February 2015 and
November 2015. The report was compiled in January 2016.

The purpose of this report is to stimulate debate with all airline stakeholders. It
contains a number of recommendations that we believe would improve the overall
customer experience. Some of the issues highlighted and recommendations made
are not totally within the delivery remit of OCS but will require a new focus from the
whole industry working collaboratively to improve certain aspects of the customer’s
journey.

This report is published as an interim report to enable further consultation and
feedback on the proposed recommendations.

Next Steps:

OCS proposes to help convene an industry-wide debate to explore
further the ideas presented in this report. This report will be shared widely with key
stakeholders with a view to testing the recommendations and exploring how we can
improve the experiences of disabled passengers.